


That's Who I'd Be

by WriteDreamLie



Category: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Another story based on a song from a musical, Fluff, If you're still thinking that sounds too cringey to watch, It's better than it has any right to be, It's on Netflix, M/M, Mixed with someone else, One Shot, Please go watch it, Shrek: The Musical, Simon is Fiona here by the way, oh no i've done it again, this time it's, you're wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 08:49:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13210236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriteDreamLie/pseuds/WriteDreamLie
Summary: "I guess I'd be a hero..."Baz gets to live out his dream of being the hero and saving a damsel in distress. But the damsel is exactly nothing like he expects.





	That's Who I'd Be

**Author's Note:**

> "So yes, I’d be a hero  
> And if my wish were granted  
> Life would be enchanted  
> Or so the stories say  
> Of course I’d be a hero  
> And I would scale a tower  
> And save a hothouse flower  
> And carry her away…"  
> -Shrek The Musical

 

**Baz**

I dig my nails into the grooves between the rough stones of the tower. Figures there wouldn’t be any handholds or anything to make this easy. Can’t have royalty hiding up in a tower that’s easy to get to, now can you?

In the late afternoon sunlight, I can see for miles around. It’s mostly trees. Below me is the clearing that surrounds the tower, littered with more than a few obvious bodies, or the armor that once held them anyway. Above me is a single window surrounded by scorch marks. Encouraging.

I climb the last few feet cautiously and lift myself slowly to peek into the room. I haven’t yet seen the massive, terrifying beast that’s supposedly guarding my charge, but given the soot on the stones here, I can guess that it’s right inside.

But. All I see is a boy.

Another surprise, given that I was expecting a princ _ess_ at the top of this tower.

A quick look around the room reveals messy piles of books, clothes, and dishes. The carpet’s a little singed too, but not nearly as much as I’d expect to see considering there’s supposed to be a dragon in there somewhere.

The boy is… beautiful is the word that comes to mind first. Golden curls falling over clear blue eyes, freckled skin and a soft mouth pulled into a frown. He’s sitting in front of a small fireplace reading one of the room’s many books.

He’s alone. No terrifying beast to deal with for now.

I pull myself up and into the room in one quick motion, then pull my sword out and scan the room again just in case.

The boy looks up, startled, then breaks into a blinding smile that just about breaks my heart. My stomach does a little flip that’s not entirely unpleasant.

“Hi,” he says. His voice is deeper than I expected.

“Hi,” I say. “I’m, um, here to rescue you.”

“Yes, I expected as much.”

He sets the book down and stands, straightening his tattered jacket. It looks like it was once befitting royalty, but has fallen into disrepair. How long has he been here?

“All right, let’s go.” He walks back to the window, taking my hand on the way. I resist the urge to run my thumb across his knuckles and pull him back into the room instead.

“Wait, aren’t there any stairs in here?”

He shakes his head. “Not that I’ve ever seen.”

“Are you joking?”

He shrugs.

“Fine. We’ll go back down the way I came. But first, where’s the dragon?”

“The what?”

“The dragon!” I gesture to the blackened sections of carpet under the window. “The thing that’s been guarding you, keeping you in here, that I’m supposed to save you _from._ ”

“Oh, uh…” He runs a hand through his hair, and the curls rearrange themselves over his forehead. “I guess… I’m the dragon?”

The end of my sword hits the floor. “What?”

“I’m the dragon?” he offers again. “I made those scorch marks. Fighting off intruders.”

I look from him to the carpet and back again, wondering what the devil he’s on about. The tiny fireplace on the other side of the room would hardly provide the fuel for such destruction as I saw outside the window as well as on this side where the soot has been wiped away somewhat.

He finally seems to realize my confusion and continues.

“I sort of… go off when I feel threatened. Like, an explosion of power or magic or straight up fire that protects me.”

“And that’s what killed those other knights?”

He winces, but nods.

“So why didn’t you go off on me?”

He shrugs yet again. I raise an eyebrow, indicating that I don’t think that’s answer enough.

“I don’t know,” he says with a huff. “I guess I just don’t feel threatened by you.”

“Fantastic. Well, that makes my job easier I guess.” I re-sheathe my sword and take a step closer to the window to start figuring out how we’re both getting back down this tower.

“Ah, wait!” he says. He runs back to his seat and grabs at one of the books. It’s at the bottom of one of the piles, and he seems unconcerned when the rest of the stack falls over. He flips through a few of the pages, scanning them quickly, then tosses the book amongst the others on the floor.

He reaches for a small box on the mantle, pulls something out of it that I can’t see, and comes back to where I’m standing, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“Right, so, if we’re going to do this correctly, you’ll need to be down on one knee.”

I find all the blood in my body rushing to my cheeks at the bluntness of the statement, but he looks completely serious, and more than a little adorable, so I kneel slowly, letting my armor adjust position on the way down.

The boy clears his throat and makes a speech that sounds like he’s been rehearsing it for far too long.

“Brave knight, I pray that you take this favor as a token of my gratitude. Your bravery and fortitude on this day will not be forgotten, least of all by me.”

He holds out his hand, and I raise one of mine to receive the favor.

It’s a jeweled pendant in the shape of a ladybird.

“Um, thanks?”

He smiles again, and I just about fall the rest of the way to the floor. I stand quickly, a little too quickly if I’m honest, and end up stumbling to my feet.

“Right. Um, let’s get going then, shall we?” I clasp the pendant and step back to the window. “Any ideas on how to get back down?”

“What time is it?”

“What could that possibly matter?”

He comes to stand next to me by the window instead of answering. Outside, the sun is quickly falling beyond the horizon. I couldn’t be gladder for it. As a knight, I don’t get special treatment due to my condition—not a lot of vampire knights in the world, you understand—and so I try to do most of my work in the later hours of the day when the sun bears down on me a little less.

Once the shadows have fallen completely, I step back into the room to reassess the situation. I look back at the boy, whose name I suddenly realize I don’t even know…

He’s got wings. Big, red, leathery ones coming right out of his back. And… _Crowley, is that a matching tail?_

This is not what I signed up for when I volunteered to be a hero.

He rubs his neck nervously like he’s shown me a particularly offensive mole (he has none; they’re all quite flattering) rather than a great big pair of dragon wings. Then he looks up at me from half-lidded eyes and it’s all I can do not to take him in my arms then and there, tail and all.

“So, um, how do we get down?”

He raises an eyebrow and gestures to the wings.

“No. Don’t try to tell me you can actually fly on those things. They don’t look like they could carry anyone.”

He shrugs yet again. “I think they can.”

“You _think?”_

“I mean… I’ve never had the chance to try.”

“Siegfried and Roy, you’re trying to kill me, aren’t you? I’m going to be just another skeleton at the bottom of this tower.”

“No, no!” He waves his hands in the air frantically, and his tail swishes fretfully behind him. “I swear, it’s nothing like that! I really do want to leave with you! And I really do think I can fly us both down safely.”

One hand is already resting on my sword. In another second, I could cleave this idiot in two and continue my search. Maybe there really is a princess somewhere in this tower for me to save.

Only… the look on his face is so pathetic, I know he can’t be lying.

Too damned sincere for his own good.

I sigh. “Fine. Show me you can fly, and I’ll _consider_ letting you fly me down too.”

He glances out the window once, then with a final shrug, walks over and leans out of it and into the open air.

For a sickening few seconds, I think I’ve just let my charge fall out a window. I imagine endless torture, if not from the Mage, then from my father, who doesn’t know I’ve come to save this idiot in the first place. If I go home with anything less than a small kingdom of my own, he’ll never forgive me. I imagine every terrible thing they’ve ever threatened to do to the Mage happening to me instead, and the steps I take to the window are very unsteady.

The moment I manage to lean on the sill to look down—may as well get the bloody mess over with—I’m flung back by the force of something flying by the window.

The next second, the boy is floating outside the window, impossible red wings flapping casually behind him.

“Told you,” he says.

My first instinct is to sneer. He looks so damned proud of himself. But he’s too bloody adorable to even do snobby pride right.

I return to the window. “Fine. Where do you want me?”

He blushes a little, and I have to look away before I do the same. When I look back up, he’s holding his hands out to me.

“Come on then.”

I look at his outstretched hands, then down to the ground, entirely too far away for my liking.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

He rolls his eyes. “How do I know I can trust _you?_ Just… come on, I can’t stay up here forever.”

I’m not sure if he means in the air or in the tower, but I suppose both are equally true. Without looking back at the ground—it’s a long way down—I reach both my hands out for his and step over the window ledge.

For a moment, all I can see are stars. They’re spinning all around me as I swing freely through the air. Then gravity asserts itself once more, and I feel my own weight pulling me down.

The boy’s strong wings pull me back up, or at least manage to slow the descent. We float more than fly downwards until my feet touch the ground. I have to help steer him down onto his own feet, as his wings seem only to know how to fly, not to land properly.

He manages to finally touch down, and almost immediately falls to his knees.

“Thanks. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could do that.”

“Hmm.”

He looks up at me from his position on the ground, eyes shining with reflections of the stars above us.

I think I might kiss him.

He’s still holding my hands.

I’m still holding his.

_Shit._

He pulls himself up to stand, and I instinctively move to pull my hands back once he’s on his feet. He holds them fast, and pulls me forward so I almost stumble onto the ground myself.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Rewarding my savior.”

He leans forward and places a soft kiss on my lips.

I return it without thinking. He doesn’t stop me, or pull back. In fact, he starts moving his mouth slightly, making me wonder if he’s done this before. I can’t imagine how, or with whom, but I also can’t imagine why that matters right now. Whatever he’s doing is quite nice, and I let him keep doing it for another minute before I finally pull back, one thing nagging at the back of my mind like nothing else.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

He blushes again. Even in the dark I can see it, and it’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.

“My name is Simon,” he practically whispers.

“Simon,” I say. The name sounds right, feels right.

I’m still holding his hands.

“Simon,” I say again. “I’m supposed to take you home.”

“I know.” He squeezes my hands and breaks into another heart-stopping smile. “But I don’t think they’ll mind if we take the long way back.”

It was a long way to get here; any way we take would be the long way back.

But, as he touches his forehead to mine and closes his wings around us, I find I can’t really argue either.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not kidding though. If you haven't watched the Shrek Musical yet, please do it, if for nothing other than the stage. The fucking STAGE man. Like, I know Broadway stages are badass by definition, but this... this is just ridiculous.
> 
> Also. I like the idea of Simon being his own dragon. It's symbolic and literal all at once. Just another gift from Rainbow Rowell, #blessed.


End file.
